We're entering a dark period of the NFL life right now. Nothing is going on. Players and coaches are on vacation. With that we look at 10 quarterback situations worth looking at before training camps start in late July, because, well, it's always about the quarterback.
The situation: It's the same old argument. Do you start the rookie or the veteran? The No. 1 pick of the draft is Stafford, but the vet with a chance to win a few games is Culpepper. Stafford is the future but you don't want to damage it. For every Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco there's a Ryan Leaf and Vince Young.
Solution: Start Culpepper and wait until 2010 for Stafford.
When the Cardinals drafted Matt Leinart 10th overall in the 2006 draft, just about everybody thought it was a perfect marriage. Arizona, the perpetual dark-horse candidate, finally had a franchise quarterback; Leinart, who had excelled in a pro-style offense at USC, was experienced beyond his years and it would only be a matter of time before he assumed the full-time job.
It didn't quite work out like that -- Leinart started 11 games as a rookie and held his own, but he only had five starts in 2007, and spent all of last season watching Kurt Warner lead Arizona to the Super Bowl. Part of the problem was that Leinart struggled with the offense, but there were bigger concerns with his maturity.
I don't know. Matt Leinart's new MMA toughness video looks less like a guy who would fit in as a gangsta than a guy who could put on a headband and be in the old Olivia Newton-John "Let's Get Physical'' video. Before, the images of Leinart on the Web showed him in a hot tub with a bunch of young women, or holding a beer bong for another woman. At least that carried some street cred, if that's still the term. Sure, it fit his pretty-boy, party-boy Hollywood image. But in the world of football players and real guys who watch the game, well, a quarterback in a hot tub with young women is not the worst thing.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.
In the past few years, NFL quarterback Matt Leinart has been in the spotlight for all kinds of reasons, but not always for his on-field play. In this exclusive video we find out what Matt does when there are no cameras around and why he is considered a hero to some Los Angeles inner-city kids. As it turns out, Leinart -- USC's former Heisman Trophy winner -- owns and operates his own youth football league. In it, 150 kids, who otherwise could not afford to participate in such activities, are provided with equipment, lunch and transportation at no cost. Beyond football, though, Miguel Perez -- who coaches in the Leinart league -- says being part of a sports team can positively change a child's life.
In a game that spans many eras, any task like this is exceedingly difficult and fraught with contradiction. With all the nostalgia built into the Heisman Trophy and the game of college football, we're buying into it with a less clinical, more emotional effort at ranking players. There's a bias towards the modern, towards a player being associated with the trophy and towards those that most captured peoples' imaginations.
NEW YORK -- Mark Sanchez wasn't at USC's spring practice Saturday, but when Trojans coach Pete Carroll called that night to congratulate Sanchez on being the No. 5 pick in the NFL draft, he gleefully told his former quarterback the story of what went down.
"He said they had a live feed of the draft on the Megatron video board there at the Coliseum," Sanchez said Sunday at Radio City Music Hall. "And every time an SC guy got picked, they'd stop practice. And he said when they showed that Cleveland had traded the (fifth) pick and that the Jets picked me, he said 25,000 people just went nuts."
Sanchez also admitted that Carroll must have been stopping practice a lot.
If you're Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, the last year hasn't been so bad. Think about it: You had 96 catches for 1,431 yards and 12 touchdowns during the regular season; you had three touchdowns in the NFC Championship Game, you had two more touchdowns in Super Bowl XLIII (so what if you wound up losing the game?), and you're named the MVP of the Pro Bowl. Not a bad year, right?
Well, things just got a little bit better for Larry on Friday, as it was announced that he was the cover guy for EA's Madden NFL 10 (along with Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu).
So what does Larry think about being on the cover? Why is he sure he's going to reverse the Madden Curse? What's the latest on Anquan Boldin's contract situation? And why does he think Matt Leinart is the next Steve Young? I asked Larry all of these questions and more during some time here in New York. Read the full interview after the jump.
Not lost among the excitement is the surprising ascent of Barkley, who also pulled a major upset in beating out Mustain for the No. 2 job and who Corp admitted is "right there". USC coach Pete Carroll says that although Corp has been named the starter, the competition will be pushed into the fall due to the unusual growth and possibilities offered by Barkley.
Perhaps no other storyline carries as much national importance for college football as USC's quarterback battle. With the three Heisman Trophy finalists -- Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy -- returning to Florida, Oklahoma and Texas, respectively, USC may be next in line as a championship contender. The Trojans are hosting a three-man battle between Matt Barkley (left), Aaron Corp (middle) and Mitch Mustain to determine the school's next quarterback who will hopefully follow in the school's lineage of successful signal-callers and maybe even lead the team to a national title.
We're entering a dark period of the NFL life right now. Nothing is going on. Players and coaches are on vacation. With that we look at 10 quarterback situations worth looking at before training camps start in late July, because, well, it's always about the quarterback.
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Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos. 
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